


Paper Airplanes are Little Bastards (a.k.a. The Day Derek Hale Learned to Love Public Transportation)

by nerdfightingwhovian



Category: Disney's Paperman (Video Short), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Paperman, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Beta Derek Hale, Derek and Stiles are Mates, Derek and Stiles are the Same Age, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, Magic Stiles, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mates, Prompt Fill, Public Transportation, Trains, True Mates, Tumblr Prompt, Werewolf Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 02:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2006940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdfightingwhovian/pseuds/nerdfightingwhovian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I got this prompt in my tumblr ask box: something inspired by Disney's paperman? cute sterek au idea.<br/>So I took it and ran with it.</p><p>Derek Hale doesn't like public transportation all that much. So it figures that he would meet his Mate on a train platform. And then watch as his nameless Mate get whisked away without being able to say even a word to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Airplanes are Little Bastards (a.k.a. The Day Derek Hale Learned to Love Public Transportation)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is also posted on [my fic rec site ](wheredidhiseyebrowsgo.tumblr.com) so find it there. Also, it's unbeta'd. (The tags say ficlet, but somehow my ficlets always turn out longer than 2,000 words.)
> 
> I was thinking of having Stiles be the one throwing airplanes, but then I thought of the moments when the paper airplanes are dragging him onto the train, and I just thought, "a fully wolfed out Derek Hale, sans eyebrows and everything is a little too perfect."

As a werewolf of discerning taste and a grumpy disposition, Derek Hale was not fond of public transportation. He hated waiting for trains. Some blathering idiot always seemed to take his scowl for an invitation to cheer him up. At which point, Derek would be forced to snarl and let his blue Beta eyes glow, maybe flash a fang or a claw. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Derek saw a blathering idiot running in his direction. He sighed, did he have a neon pink sign pointing down at him saying “I’m done with everybody’s shit today, but please come annoy the fuck out of me anyway”? He was seriously contemplating sticking his foot out to trip the idiot, when a gust of wind blew in his direction and holy shit, that blathering idiot smelled like Mate.

Derek’s first thought was, _just my fucking luck._ Because, of course his Mate would be one of those cheerful people who were clumsy and quirky and really, really attractive. Derek paused, attractive? That wasn’t one of the words that Derek would describe his Mate. At least, he wouldn’t have until the man ended up chasing a piece of paper past him and Derek saw pale skin, moles, a long neck, and a pair of nicely broad shoulders. 

Derek shuffled his feet and the immense pile of papers he held. His Mate made his way next to Derek; he was holding a small pile of papers. He turned to look at Derek. His mouth, a very pretty, perfectly shaped mouth, parted and another gust of wind blew. Only this time, it blew a piece of Derek’s paper right onto the man’s face. Derek’s eyes widened, he quickly grabbed the piece of paper from the man’s face. The man’s face brightened as the piece of paper was removed and Derek felt his lips twitch. 

The other man’s eyes fell on the piece of paper and those big, beautiful brown eyes widened. He snorted and worried his lip with his teeth. Derek’s eyes narrowed and turned the paper so he could see it. Along the entire front of the paper was a big purple smear. It glittered and sparkled in the sunlight, and Derek began to laugh, his Mate was a witch, and he had left his magic all over Derek’s work. He turned his attention back to his Mate, but saw that he was gone. He glanced up and saw his Mate on a train, headed in the opposite direction of Derek’s train. The man looked sad, and he raised a single hand to wave goodbye. Before Derek could comprehend what was happening, his Mate was whisked away by the thing Derek hated most, public transportation. 

Derek grumbled and shuffled his way to his too small desk. He plopped his stack of papers down and groaned. He would probably never see his Mate again. The puppy with the uneven jawline next to him asked him a question and Derek just grunted in acknowledgement. He settled down and stared at the piece of paper with the purple smear, he sighed and plunked his head down on his desk. His head shot up when a light breeze through the office brought with it the scent of Mate, vanilla, and cinnamon, and a hint of magic. He twisted this way and that, looking for his Mate in the office. 

It was only once he looked out his window, into the window of another office that he saw him, his Mate. Derek stood up and tried to grab the other man’s attention, but his Mate was completely oblivious. His gaze landed on an unmarked piece of paper, and suddenly, Derek was inspired. He folded the paper this way and that, channeling his inner child. Eventually he held up a paper airplane. He lined up, and threw. The paper airplane made it about a foot before it stopped and fluttered to the ground. Derek groaned. 

His window snapped shut and Derek turned a horrified glance toward his boss, Kate Argent, a woman who had never really liked werewolves (or him after he had broken up with her when they were 18). She gave him a cold look and returned to her office. Derek glared at her and the woman in the desk in front of him, a blond named Erica, stuck her tongue out at her back. 

Derek snorted and made another paper airplane. This one made it to the building but crashed into the side of it. Derek made airplane after airplane and threw them with varying success. One made it into the room, but landed in the trash bin on the other side of the room. A woman in other office got another one, then crumpled it when Derek made it clear that it was _not_ for her. Airplane after airplane flew out of Derek’s window and airplane after airplane landed in the street below. At some point, Derek lost track of the airplanes that he threw and where they went, all he knew was that none of them were making it to his Mate. Derek was stunned out of his airplane trance when he knocked over the basket where his paper had all been. 

He looked at Jawline’s massive pile of papers, but Jawline grabbed them and protected them as well as he could with just his arms. Derek rolled his eyes. Then he saw the piece of paper with the purple smear of magic. He made each fold of this paper airplane perfect, precise. It had to be the best, it absolutely had to. His Mate was getting ready to leave the office. Then Derek would never see him again. He readied himself to throw it. He took a deep breath and startled when the door to Kate’s office burst open. In his shock, Derek dropped the airplane. Horrified, he watched it flutter down to the street. He glanced up and saw the back of his Mate going through the door. He turned to leave, but Kate was standing there, a new stack of papers. She dropped the papers on his desk, and dared him to leave with nothing but her eyebrows. 

The eyes of everyone in the office were on him. Derek growled, flashed his eyes at everyone and took off for the stairs. 

He took the stairs two, three, four at a time. He flipped and jumped down the stairs, making his way as quickly as he could. When he was finally down at the street, he saw the other man making his way down the block. Derek charged across the street, paying no mind to the paper airplane carcasses on the street, and the cars and buses, he ran across the street. He almost got hit but he didn’t care. He kept going, until, he got across the street and his Mate was gone. Derek growled and snarled. His wolf inside howled and clawed to get out. He looked down and saw the purple airplane that he had dropped. He snarled and threw it as hard as he could. Then he scowled and shuffled his way toward home. 

Derek had only gotten about halfway home when the purple airplane plastered itself to his leg. He huffed and threw it behind him, just to have it fly back and stick to his chest. Along with about twenty other airplanes. Derek brushed them off. Then hundreds of airplanes flew out of nowhere and began pushing him. They tripped him and pushed him. They maneuvered his arms and legs. At one point he fell down so they just picked him up and took him across the street. He was bounced and jostled and all in all, he really hated it. _This_ , he decided, _was even worse than public transportation_.With a turn and a spin the purple smeared airplane flew off in another direction. Derek would have watched it go, but he was focusing on the fact that his paper airplanes and somehow _come alive_ , and were _carrying_ him. 

**

Stiles meandered his way to a little flower booth. His mother’s birthday was coming up and he wanted to be sure he found the perfect bouquet of flowers for her. Ever since that nasty cancer scare when he was eleven, her birthdays were one of the most special occasions in his family. He was perusing their choices when the strangest thing happened. Okay, not the strangest thing, there had been one incident with Scott, Danny, Jackson, and five pineapples that no one ever wanted to talk about again. 

Anyway, he was perusing the bouquets at a little flower booth when a paper airplane with a smear of his magic landed in one of the bouquets in front of him. 

He stared at it for a moment, leaning in and making all sorts of hmming noises. His eyebrows arched and he moved his head this way and that to get a full picture of the airplane. Just as he was about to pick it up, it shot up from the bouquet and circled him multiple times. It spun around and around and Stiles made little movements to try to catch it. Then it flew off down the block, leaving Stiles with no choice but to chase it. He sprinted after it, bumping into people and shouting “sorry” over his shoulder. 

He raced it up the stairs to the train platform, smiling the whole way. The paper airplane itself was nice. If he slowed down because he was tired, it hovered, waiting, but still encouraging him to go a certain way. His laughter, and whoops of joy seemed to please the airplane and disturb anyone near. 

The paper airplane led him onto a train and down the cars of it. It twisted and twirled in the air, doing beautiful paper airplane tricks. Stiles laughed and followed it as he went. 

**

Derek was not enjoying this. He hated the stupid airplanes. They pushed and pulled and God, they were embarrassing. People stared as a werewolf, fully wolfed out with claws and sideburns was dragged up the stairs of the train station. He growled and snapped at the airplanes, but the bastards were unfazed. He used his claws to grip onto banisters and poles. He left gouges that he knew he would have to pay for later, but he didn’t care. Every time he was able to grab an airplane and rip it to shreds, another one was there to take its place. Immediately he regretted making so many damn airplanes. 

The airplanes forced him onto the train, pushing until he spilled into the train car. He held onto the sides of the door, but the airplanes proved stronger than his impressive werewolf strength. What the fuck were these airplanes and why the fuck were they so annoying? They pushed him into a seat and plastered themselves to his front to keep him from going anywhere. 

He roared and pushed himself up from the seat, only to have all the airplanes push him back down with as much force as they could muster. A child next to him stared. He snarled in the child’s direction. Understandably, the child’s mother grabbed him and dragged him to another car.Mother’s tended to move their young children away from fully wolfed out werewolves with bright blue eyes.

Derek slumped back in his seat, arms crossed, face scowling. He was defeated by a couple hundred paper airplanes. What even was his life?

Derek’s train finally stopped at the station he had been at that morning. The paper airplanes forced him up and off the train. Then they just stopped moving. They began to fall off, one after the other. Until he smelled Mate. Then, he looked up.

**

Stiles sat on the train, holding the magic smeared airplane. He looked down at it, and pondered where it was taking him. He watched the scenery pass him by. Finally, the train began to slow and the airplane began to shift. Stiles stood up and walked toward the door of the train. He got out, but the airplane wasn’t moving anymore. It was simply laying in his hands. 

He bounced it up and down a few times, encouraging it to take flight and lead him somewhere else. He stared at it, confused. Then a gust of air brought with it more paper airplanes. This time, they were all blank. No magic, purple smears. Some were crinkled and torn, but that didn’t really surprise Stiles. 

He looked up to see where the paper airplanes had come from, only to see the handsome werewolf from that morning. Stiles smiled at the sight of the gruff, stubbled, heavily muscled werewolf absolutely covered in little paper airplanes. The werewolf surged forward, ridding himself of all his little paper airplane friends. 

Stiles took a few steps forward and rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. The werewolf looked embarrassed. 

Stiles smiled and took another step closer. He held out his hand, “Hi, I’m Stiles Stilinski.”

The werewolf stared at Stiles’ hand and shot forward. The werewolf’s hand grasped Stiles’ in a tight grip, “I’m Derek Hale.”

Stiles smiled and held up the purple smeared paper airplane, “Nice to meet you, Derek Hale.” 


End file.
